INTRODUCTION:

Rapid population growth poses a great challenge for social, economic and cultural development of countries (Jahanfar, 1998) and one of the most serious problems developing countries still have to solve is their rapid and uncontrolled increase in population (Mistik et al, 2003). The issue of family planning all over the world has attracted attention due to its importance in decision making about population growth and development issues.

The World Health Organization in 1971 defined family planning as the practice that helps individuals or couples to attain certain objectives such as avoiding unwanted pregnancies, bringing about wanted babies at the right time, regulating the intervals between babies, controlling the time at which birth occurs in relation to the ages of the parents and determining the number of children in the family. Onokerhoraye (1997) also added that family planning involves teaching men and women about their bodies and how to prevent births usually with contraceptives. Most family planning programs and research works done on family planning focused on women thus reinforcing the believe that family planning is largely a woman’s business with a man playing a very peripheral role (Lolla, 1996).

However, men play an important role in household decision making process and it becomes extremely important when the decision is related to family planning because it includes desirable family size, use of family planning methods and many more (Nasir et al, 2007). A man’s awareness, utilization and attitude towards family planning has a significant impact on family planning usage. Thus this study aimed at assessing the awareness, utilization and attitude of married men towards family planning: the case of men living within the Nkwen health area, Bamenda.

METHODOLOGY:

Study design, area and period:

A community based cross – sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the awareness, utilization and attitude of married men towards family planning: the case of men living within the Nkwen health area located in Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon from June to July 2015.

Sample population:

All married men living within the Nkwen health area constituted the source population whereas randomly selected married men who at the time of the research were living with their spouses formed the sample population

Sample size determination:

The single population proportion formula was used to calculate the sample size with assumption of proportion(p) for male involvement in family planning to be 81% (i.e. p = 0.81) from previous studies (Jamal, 2010). 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error.

Therefore;

Where

Z = confidence interval (95%)

W = margin of error (5%)

P = proportion (81%)

Using this total sample size was 56 married men

Data Collection:

A structured questionnaire was self – administered to the participants to collect data. The questionnaires were pre – tested on a similar population a week before commencement of the actual research work. Households where the respondents were not at home were repeated.

Data Analysis:

Data collected were handled confidentially and entered into IBM SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. Frequency tables and graphs were used to present the data.

Note:

Based on the statements assessing attitude, the percent score 60% was considered as having a positive attitude towards family planning (kesetebirhan, 2011).

Ethical Considerations:

Research authorization was obtained from the North West Regional delegation of public health (Reference №: 551/RA/NWR/RDPH). Participants were explained the importance of study and their rights and confidentiality were maintained. Each participant signed a consent form or at least gave a verbal consent before participating.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Demography of the participants:

Majority of the participants were in the age range of 18 – 35 years (46.5%) and were mostly employed (69.7%) who had attained a tertiary level of education (47.5%). With respect to the number of children, most of them had 1 – 5 children (46.5%) and most of their spouses were housewives (49.4%).

Table 1: Distribution of participants based on demography

Variables

Frequency

Percent

Age range (in years)

18 – 35

36 – 55

56 and above

46.5

32.3

21.2

Occupation

Employed

Unemployed

69.7

30.3

Qualification

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

21.2

31.3

47.5

Number of children

None

1 – 5

6 and above

29.3

46.5

24.2

Wife’s occupation

Housewife

Student

Lawyer

Teacher

Health personnel

Farmer

Trader

Hair dresser

39.4

7.1

2.0

20.2

11.1

7.1

10.1

3.0

Level of awareness:

Most of the married men in this study were aware of family planning (85.9%) and the main source of information on their awareness was from their wives (35.9%) followed by hospital (29.4%) with the least being church (8.2%). This high level of awareness is similar to the 91% reported Lawoyin et al, (2002) but however, slightly lower than the 99.8% reported by Macellina et al, 2010. This high level of awareness was attributed to the high level of education of the participants. This ties with our study since most of the participants had attained a tertiary level of education (47.5%). In this study, most of the married men got the information on family planning from their wives (35.9%) which is in line with the report that when women are empowered in family planning programs in can increase the knowledge, attitude and practice of men towards family planning (Soheila et al, 2014). Also, Soheila et al, 2014 further stipulated that since it is usually for men to access the educational materials regarding family planning their wives can serve as an important source to them.

Table 2: Level of awareness and source of awareness

Variables

Frequency

Percent

Aware of family planning

Yes

85.9

14.1

Source of awareness

Wife

Friends

Hospital

Media

Church

35.3

15.3

29.4

11.8

8.2

Utilization of family planning services:

Majority of the participants had used a family planning method (63.6%) and most of them had used condoms (46.0%) mainly to reduce the number of births (13.1%), to space births (11.1%) and to prevent unwanted pregnancies (10%). This finding is similar to the findings of Orji and Onwudiegwu, 2007; the 2008 Nigeria NDHS and Macellina et al, 2014 which showed that the male condoms was the most common modern method used by married men. However, this result is not in line with the study of Soheila et al, 2014 who reported that majority of the participants in their study used the withdrawal method. This may be due to poor knowledge on the adverse effects of family planning methods amongst their participants as it has the potential to increase the failure rate or use of insecure method such as withdrawal.

Table 3: Utilization of family planning services amongst the study participants

Variables

Percent

Ever used a Family planning method

Yes

63.6

36.4

Type of family planning method used

Condoms

Vasectomy

Withdrawal

Others (tubal ligation, pills etc.)

46.0

8.0

19.0

27.0

Reasons for use

To reduce number of births

To space births

To prevent unwanted pregnancies

Do not want to have children anymore

To prevent STDs

It is convenient

To have children on time

To maintain number of kids

To plan for the future

No specific reason

13.1

11.1

7.1

5.1

Reasons for not using family planning services:

Majority of those who did not use family planning said it was because they want more children (6.1%) which is in line with the studies of Mesfin (2002) and Bankole and Singh (1998). This could be explained by the fact that in many developing countries, men culturally consider children as an asset and think that they socially and economically gain from having a large number of children (Cardwell and Cardwell, 1990). Also some men reported that they do not use family planning methods because it is inconvenient (6.1%), it is against their religion (6.1%) and those with no specific reasons for not using (6.1%).

Figure 1: Represents the reasons for not using family planning services by respondents

Attitude of married men towards family planning:

According to this study, most of the participants had a positive attitude towards family planning (50%). This result is lower than the 84.1% positive attitude reported by Soheila et al, 2014 who stated that attitude is a response that comes from knowledge and experiences. This result on attitude highlights the need to convert men’s positive attitude into positive behaviors through intensive reproductive health education as well as involving men fully into family planning services. However, 40% of the participants were neutral and 10% had a negative attitude towards family planning.

Figure 2: Represents the attitude of married men towards family planning

CONCLUSION:

Findings from this study reveals a high level of awareness of family planning amongst married men with majority of them having a positive attitude. Also most of them men in this study had used a family planning method and most of them had used condoms.

LIMITATIONS:

The research sample size can be seen as small thus may not be entirely representative of the Nkwen health area. We therefore suggest that a longitudinal research could be out to explore on the factors influencing the utilization of family planning services amongst couples in the Nkwen health area. We are therefore ready for any sponsorship for such research

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We are indebted to the participants for their time and also to the North West Regional delegate for authorizing this research to be carried out.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 30.07.2015 Modified on 17.08.2015

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research 3(4): Oct.-Dec., 2015; Page 437-440

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2015.00037.X